You see some odd sights walking the streets around Kings Cross.

But McElhone Street has a couple of lovely surprises on the side.

The laneway garden above is on Windeyer Street.

This one’s at the end of Rae Place.

These gardens remind us a lot of this one in Thomson Street.

Street proud residents, lane way love.

The public art/guerilla garden at the corner of Cathedral and Palmer Streets, Woolloomoolloo, wasn’t removed by council (as we wrongly guessed a couple of weeks ago). It was the group behind the original display, Guerrilla Gardeners, and they’ve returned.

I like the latest desert inspired installation.

Just in time for Baz’s blockbuster.

Everyone who passes takes a look inside, wonders what it means, and moves along.

Sunanda Creagh picked up the Guerrilla Gardeners story today in the SMH, mentioning for the first time (I think) that Channel 10 is behind the mysterious gardens that have appeared at sites in Ashfield, Killara, Bankstown, Canterbury, as well as Surry Hills and one site we’ve been keeping an eye on in Woolloomoolloo.

The development covered in today’s Herald features a bandstand, new turf, chairs and plants in Australia Park, next to the Newtown neighbourhood centre. It was erected without a DA; it would hardly be guerilla if they were applying, right?

I don’t know that if we put a DA in on land that’s not ours that it would get through.

But the magic of guerilla gardening, as I get it, is about planting gardens in forgotten bits of dirt in urban areas. The Guerilla Gardeners’ projects have deployed a bandstand, a recommissioned VW car and a Hills Hoist for visual effect. And while the plants used have been pretty, they seem to lack the long term garden (/community) development.

A guerrilla garden/public art project appeared on the corner of Cathedral and Palmer Streets, Woolloomoolloo, a few months ago – we blogged about it at the time.

The letters W-O-O-L-L-O-O-M-O-O-L-L-O-O were pegged on a Hills Hoist right in the centre of the garden.

As you can see above, the Hills and letters are gone.

Update (21/11/08):

Went past today and it’s all gone. Back to being a fenced-off concrete square.

This fenced-in section of footpath was at the corner of Cathedral and Palmer Streets, Woolloomooloo, when Google’s street mappers toured in late 2007.

Not exactly inviting. But several months ago it sprouted a carpet of astroturf, several pot plants and a Hill’s Hoist.

I thought it was public art. Turns out it’s Guerrilla Gardeners.